


Hating You Was Never An Option

by Hinganbachuru (Twilight_Joltik)



Category: Asagao Academy: Normal Boots Club, PBG Hardcore series
Genre: Flowers and Chocolate, M/M, Minor Injuries, Panic Attacks
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-01-24
Updated: 2018-01-24
Packaged: 2019-03-09 01:59:56
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,768
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13471314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Twilight_Joltik/pseuds/Hinganbachuru
Summary: Ray really shouldn’t underestimate Dean’s ability to not care that he accidentally tripped him during a soccer game.





	Hating You Was Never An Option

**Author's Note:**

> I wrote this like, two weeks ago and hated it so I kind of completely rewrote half of it. Hoping it’s a lot better now!

Ray was completely sickened with himself. He hadn’t been paying attention, hadn’t realized Dean was so close to him when rushing towards the ball and had ended up making him trip and get really hurt. No one would tell him exactly what had happened - despite being right there, he’d been pulled away from Dean quickly and hadn’t seen anything but a bit of blood dripping onto the turf - but he couldn’t stand himself for having caused it.

  
He didn’t know what to do once Dean got dragged off to the nurse’s office to assess the damage and see if he needed to go to the hospital. As much as he wanted to go apologize and be there for him, he was probably the last person Dean wanted to see right now. He didn’t know who to talk to about it either, considering he’d just injured someone who was a dear friend to almost anyone he felt comfortable crying in front of.

  
That left him with one option: running off to his room and crying his eyes out in solitude. Not the best option, and probably made him look like a coward, but to be fair, that wasn’t inaccurate. He’d rather leave in the middle of an incident than get yelled at when he was yelling at himself enough for an entire stadium’s worth of people. Not realizing the one person he could almost always be counted on to notice was right in front of him as he took a hasty shot at the goal; he was such an idiot!

  
Falling back on his bed, he started sobbing. Dean would never want to talk to him again! His best friend since he transferred, the one he’d let himself love, he was as good as gone to him. And not only that, but he’d definitely get kicked off the soccer team too! He’d go back to being an awkward loner, sitting alone at lunch with the same Salor Sun mangas he’d checked out a billion times from the school library as his only company.

  
Was there any way to not end up sad and alone here? He couldn’t think of any right now, but maybe that was just the pessimist in him talking. But hey, Dean wasn’t entirely unforgiving. He’d forgiven McJones for getting the both of them kicked in the face by some boulder of a player last season, so maybe with enough apologies their friendship could survive this!

  
Hugging the Snoozelax plush an old friend had given him close, he let out a deep sigh and tried to think of a way to fix this. Flowers? That was kind of his thing, so would that be cliche or even more meaningful? Well, if he wasn’t sure, it wasn’t the basket to jam all his eggs in, so he’d have to do at least something else as a backup.

  
How the hell did you even apologize to someone who you’d accidentally tripped and injured? He didn’t know. What would Dean appreciate? It wasn’t like he could just run out real quick and get him anime merch or something, but he thought balloons and cards were lame. Maybe sweets?

  
That was it! He could get him some chocolates and flowers and tell him how fucking sorry he was and maybe he’d be forgiven! Not certain, but he had to try and not wallow in his misery, as nice as that sounded. Dean deserved better than some loser who kicked him in the shin really hard on accident and didn’t do anything about it.

 

* * *

 

Dean’s heart jumped a bit as the door to the nurse’s office opened suddenly, revealing Ray, who was straining under the weight of a bouquet and chocolate box. He’d clearly gotten the biggest of both he could find. If he were wearing a tuxedo instead of a shirt printed with the pattern of one, it’d look as if he were asking someone out to a school dance - either as a beleaguered boyfriend or a desperate tryhard.

  
Dean couldn’t help but laugh a bit. “Kinda overboard for a busted lip, don’t you think?”

  
His eyes darted up to Dean’s hand, or at least the tissue in it. Kinda bloody, but not gushing or anything. “T-to be fair,” Ray started with a shaky laugh. “They wouldn’t let me get a good look at you. Everyone was acting like you were really hurt or s-something.”

  
“More ‘or something’, really,” Dean countered. “Seriously, I’d leave but the nurse had to go deal with something and he’d get mad if I left without telling him.”  
Ray laughed a little bit. “I- I’m just happy you’re alright! I was scared I’d really hurt you!”

  
His friend was still clearly a bit shaken up, eyes darting off anywhere to focus anywhere but his own. Dean frowned. “Hey, uh, you okay?”

  
“A-Am I okay?”, Ray stuttered out. “W-well yeah! I wasn’t the one who-“

  
“Stop worrying about me,” Dean interrupted. “I’m fine, and I’m asking if you’re alright, because you’re still shaking and stuttering like I’m holding a gun to your head.”

  
His eyes darted down to the floor. “I just… I thought you’d be so mad at me…”

  
“Mad at you?”, Dean repeated. He wanted to laugh, but he could tell by the tears welling up in Ray’s eyes that wasn’t the best plan. So instead, he pulled himself to his feet and stumbled over to hug him.

  
Ray tensed up for a moment before relaxing. “I kinda panicked, I guess. Thought you were hurt and you’d hate me for hurting you.”

  
Dean brushed a tear out of Ray’s eye with his finger, really hoping it was as nice a gesture as it looked like in romance animes. “You don’t ever have to worry about that,” Dean assured him softly. “Even if you did really hurt me, it was an accident. Not your fault.”

  
That shaky frown on Ray’s face turned to an equally shaky smile. “I just… you’re the last person I would ever want to hurt.”

  
Last person ever, huh? His eyes darted back to the flowers and chocolates. He didn’t know shit about flower meanings, but he did know that there were an awful lot of roses in that. Red roses; Ray’s favorite, so they could be meaningless. But chocolates? He liked them fine, but it wasn’t like that was a normal thing people got him.

  
Well, he didn’t wanna put any more strain on the guy, so it probably wasn’t the best time to ask. He just needed to be nice and give off neutral signals of attraction right now. “And you didn’t hurt me, so just chill out. Here, lemme…”

  
He grabbed the chocolate box and opened it, tearing the cellophane off with his admittedly probably a bit too jagged nails. The lid didn’t say what flavor any of them were, so he guessed they’d just have to choose one and hope for the best. “Not sure what any of them are,” he started, holding the box out to Ray.

“But, I mean, they’re chocolates. I’m sure it’ll be good, as long as they aren’t just weird wads of coconut.”

  
Ray gasped in mock outrage. “Excuse me, but the weird wads of coconut are good too! It’s those syrupy cherries you’ve gotta avoid.”

  
“I will fight you,” Dean huffed in turn, purposefully choosing a chocolate that looked like one of the cherries and biting half of it off. “See?”, he said through a half full mouth. “Better than coconut wads.”

  
Smirking, Ray chose one that looked pretty unmistakably like a wad of coconut and shoved it in his mouth. “I dunno, this is pretty good. I’ll have to compare to be sure, though.”

  
What happened next was a bit hard to wrap his mind around. Dean had absolutely no idea in exactly what order it occured or who initiated it. All he knew was that the action started with him offering Ray the remaining half of the cherry and ended with their lips smashed together, the taste of cherry syrup fresh in his mouth.

  
It seemed Ray had gotten a bit carried away too, as he started to pull away after a second, but Dean pulled him back in. He liked this too much to stop quite yet. The pounding within and against his chest, the warmth spreading through him and writhing - even the fact his glasses were digging into the bridge of his nose and the blood from his busted up lip was beginning to overpower the taste of the cherry syrup was fine. Wait, maybe that was kinda gross, or at least to Ray it might be. He forced himself to pull away.

“Sorry, uh, kinda forgot my lip was still messed up,” he quickly apologized, rushing to put a paper towel back on it. “Unless you’re a vampire, then you probably liked that and I should be worried you’ve developed a taste for my blood,” he added as the vaguely amusing thought popped into his head without giving the words any thought.

  
It seemed the joke went over fine, though, considering Ray laughed. “Well, I only tasted the cherry, so unless you’re as sweet as you look, I’ll feed elsewhere.”

  
Yep. There it was: definite confirmation that this was flirting. He couldn’t help but smile. It was pretty adorable despite or possible because of how bad Ray was at it.

  
“So, perhaps we could do something that doesn’t have a risk of me accidentally giving you tetanus?”, Dean suggested, unsure if tetanus was something you could catch through exposure to blood or not.

  
Probably wasn’t, judging by the laugh that got. “Sounds good. Wanna go back to my dorm and watch anime?”, Ray suggested. “I have a metric fuckton of blankets that look like they’d be awfully good for cuddling.”

  
As much as he wanted to say something snarky, it was too unbearably adorable an idea to even attempt that. “That sounds like the cutest thing ever,” he conceded. “Can we watch like, Postcure or something super lame and cutesy like that?”

  
“Hey now,” Ray started, tempting Dean with the prospect of interrupting.

  
He couldn’t resist. “-you’re an all star?”

  
Ray rolled his eyes. “If you’re gonna be my boyfriend, you aren’t allowed to say Postcure is lame.”

  
Dean giggled like the lovesick teenager he was. “Alright, but you can’t say Pixie Tail is trash!”

  
An exasperated sigh came from Ray. “You’re the second boyfriend to give me that as a condition for dating. What does that say about me?”

  
“That you’re into weebs?”, Dean suggested.

  
For that wise observation, he got a forehead kiss. “Totally.”


End file.
